Cortana Virtual Assistant Confirmed for US Windows Phone in 2014; EU and Asia Later

[dgstorm]

Here's a follow-up to our previous piece regarding Microsoft's development of a Google Now/Siri-like virtual assistant called Cortana. Supposedly, sources have confirmed that Microsoft is developing Cortana and that she will make her debut first on U.S. Windows Phones in early 2014, and will come to Europe and Asia a bit later.

It looks like Microsoft is finally leveraging their considerable expertise in voice-recognition to start getting competitive again. With Steve Ballmer leaving Microsoft, perhaps the era of being stuck in just their core Enterprise strategy will finally come to an end, ushering in a new focus on cutting edge innovation and creativity again.

If Microsoft had been running their software division as aggressively as they have their Xbox division over the past few years, then maybe the entire mobile landscape would have looked a bit different. What do you guys think? Is Microsoft on the rise again, or is it too early to tell?

Source: PhoneArena

 

[MA83]

I definitely think they are. With OEM's like Nokia and Intel focusing on innovative hardware (and software in Nokia's case) for the WP8 and W8 platforms, I think we've only begun to see where MS is heading with mobile tech and platforms. I've been following them fairly closely for about a year now and I'm very impressed. My wife just got a Lumia 928 this week and it's the fastest most responsive phone I've ever used. Not to mention the camera tech is hands down the best. We compared it to my iPhone 4 last night (company phone and unfortunately I still have a year left with it), and the difference is night and day. Quite literally in fact as I used a low light scenario with flash and no flash. The xenon flash on her phone lit up the room like day light and the phone and camera handled it like a champ. You would have swore she was sitting outdoors and the vibrancy of the picture outstanding. The no flash picture on the iPhone was almost black while you would have swore we had more lights on than just the TV. We take a LOT of pictures with our phones and before we had always used my iPhone. That's definitely changing.

As for the fastest, I'm referring to responsiveness. Flipping through apps and screens is far above anything else I've used. The onscreen keyboard is much more accurate as well. App layout is very easy to navigate. One other thing to note, my wife has a hard time navigating my iPhone. Not so with the Lumia. She picked that thing up and in no time had the thing figured out. With the struggles she had with my iPhone and her Android devices over the last few years, that's a weight off my back, because I'm not going to have her asking me how to do something on her phone all the time.

 

[MA83]

I'm hoping to see a bay trail phone running full windows that docs into a desktop dock someday in the near future.